The present invention relates to systems for identifying and verifying an individual's identity to perform subsequent tasks such as allowing access to a secured facility or permit selected monetary transactions to occur.
Modern identification and verification systems typically provide components that capture an image of a person, and then with associated circuitry and software, process the image and then compare the image with stored images, if desired. In a secured access environment, a positive match between the acquired image of the individual and a pre-stored image allows access to the facility.
Like the written signature, the facial image is now a legally binding authenticator. With the advent of hand-held and “PALM” consumer devices, a range of two-way wireless data is now available to consumers such as broadcast video, analog and digital voice, and even internet text and images. These devices already bring together video and voice for communication through means of a tiny camera built into the device. As these devices continue to push the technology envelope and offer more advanced features, we may come to accept them not as a novelty, but more of a necessity, much like we take a wrist watch for granted. These devices may evolve to incorporate IR communications to facilitate quick and authenticated communications with compatible bank automatic teller machines (ATMs), home security systems, automobiles and more.
The capture and manipulation of image data with modern identification systems places an enormous processing burden on the system. Prior art systems have addressed this problem by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on image data to reduce the amount of data that needs to be stored to operate the system efficiently. An example of such a system is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,164,992, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. However, certain environmental standards need still be present to ensure the accuracy of the comparison between the newly acquired image of the pre-stored image. In particular, the individual is generally positioned at a certain location prior to capturing the image of the person. Additionally, the alignment of the body and face of the individual is controlled to some degree to ensure the accuracy of the comparison. Lighting effects and other optical parameters are addressed to further ensure accuracy. Once the individual is positioned at the selected location, the system then takes a snapshot of the person, and this still image is processed by the system to determine whether access is granted or denied.
The foregoing system operation suffers from a real time cost that slows the overall performance of the system. Modern system applications require more rigorous determinations in terms of accuracy and time in order to minimize the inconvenience to people seeking access to the facility or attempting to perform a monetary transaction, such as at an ATM. Typical time delays in order to properly position and capture an image of the person, and then compare the image with pre-stored images, is in the order of 3 to 5 seconds or even longer. Consequently, these near real-time systems are quickly becoming antiquated in today's fast paced and technology dependent society. There thus exists a need in the art to develop a real-time facial identification and verification system that in real-time acquires and processes images of the individual.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a real-tine identification and verification system, particularly for use with hand-held devices and computers.
Another object of this invention is to provide an identification system that simplifies the processing of the acquired image while concomitantly enhancing the accuracy of the system.
Other general and more specific objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear from the drawings and description which follow.